Germany defended itself at the International Court of Justice on Tuesday against accusations that its arms shipments to Israel fueled the genocide in Gaza, arguing that most of the equipment it has provided since October 7 was non-lethal and that it was also one of the largest donors. humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
At the UN court in The Hague, Germany’s lawyers said the allegations made by Nicaragua had “no factual or legal basis” and were based on an assessment of the military behavior of Israel, which is not a party to the case.
“Germany strongly rejects Nicaragua’s accusations,” Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, a German Foreign Ministry official and lead counsel in the case, told the 15-member panel of judges, adding that Nicaragua “rushed this case to court based on weaker elements. .”
On Monday, Nicaragua alleged that Germany was facilitating genocide against Palestinians in Gaza by providing Israel with military and financial aid and called for emergency measures ordering the German government to end its support. The court is expected to decide within weeks whether to issue emergency measures.
The proceedings, which ended on Tuesday, were the third time in recent months that the UN court has become a forum for nations to pressure Israel and support the Palestinians.
Earlier this year, the court heard arguments from South Africa that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and ordered the Israeli government to take steps to prevent such atrocities. The court has not ruled on whether genocide actually took place, a claim Israel has vehemently denied.
The latest case, brought by a Nicaraguan government that has been widely accused of repression and human rights abuses, has put Germany, Israel’s second largest arms supplier after the United States, in the spotlight. Germany’s leadership calls support for Israel a “Staatsräson,” a national raison d’être, as a way to atone for the Holocaust.
But the mounting death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza have led some German officials to question whether this support has gone too far.
Germany’s lawyers urged the court to dismiss the case. They argued that Germany tried to balance the interests of both Israel and the Palestinians and presented evidence showing that Berlin was among the largest single donors to the UN and other agencies providing humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“Germany has always been a staunch supporter of the rights of the Palestinian people,” said Ms von Uslar-Gleichen. “This is, alongside Israel’s security, the second principle that has guided Germany’s response to the Middle East conflict in general, and its current escalation in particular.”
In 2023, Germany approved arms exports to Israel worth 326.5 million euros, or about $353.7 million, according to figures released by the finance ministry. This is about 10 times the amount approved last year.
Germany’s legal team argued on Tuesday that most of its exports were non-lethal support, such as protective equipment, communications equipment and chemical defense equipment. Christian Tams, Germany’s lawyer, denied Nicaragua’s claims that Germany had increased arms supplies to Israel since the October 7 Hamas attack, saying that since then “no artillery shells, no ammunition” had been authorized.
“The picture presented by Nicaragua is at best inaccurate and at worst a deliberate misrepresentation of the real situation,” he said.
While it was not possible to independently verify the figures presented by Mr Tams, they were roughly in line with what the German government provided earlier this year, in response to a question from a lawmaker, when it said only about 6% of its military exports to Israel was for what it called “weapons of war”.
Critics have said there is little distinction between the types of weapons provided to Israel while it is at war. On Monday, Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez, Nicaragua’s ambassador to the Netherlands, told the court that “it doesn’t matter if an artillery shell is delivered directly from Germany to an Israeli tank that is shelling a hospital” or goes to replenish Israel’s stockpiles .
Pieter D. Wezeman, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which monitors global arms exports, said the German position is in line with typical arms exports to Israel.
“Although they don’t do the killing directly, they are an essential part of the overall system, the armed forces of a country, that actually make it possible to engage in war,” he said.
Lawyers say Germany is an easier target for a suit than the United States, by far Israel’s main military backer. Germany has granted full jurisdiction to the International Court of Justice. But the United States denies its jurisdiction, except where Washington expressly consents.
